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Chapter 13: Pathfinder Legacy / Monster Conversion

Attacks

Source Starfinder Core Rulebook pg. 501
You might decide to give a converted monster a plasma sword, a laser pistol, or another Starfinder weapon (see Gear and Treasure starting on page 502). If you do so, you need to do two other things. First, ignore any iterative attacks the monster might have from a high base attack bonus. Instead, it can attack once with the new weapon at its highest attack bonus or attack twice by taking a full attack action (with a –4 penalty to its highest attack bonus for each attack). Second, add the monster’s CR to the damage dealt by the weapon (in addition to the monster’s Strength bonus for melee attacks, of course) to represent weapon specialization.

Alternatively, you can use a Pathfinder RPG monster’s full attack as it is listed without doing any conversion, resulting in a larger number of attacks that each deal less damage. This works like the multiattack ability that some monsters have in Starfinder, regardless of whether the attacks are made with manufactured or natural weapons. The monster can still make a Starfinder full attack (two attacks at its highest attack bonus with a –4 penalty to each). A converted monster that makes a Starfinder full attack cannot make a guarded step on the same turn.

For example, a harpy (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 172) has an attack entry that reads, “Melee morningstar +8/+3 (1d8+1), 2 talons +3 (1d6).” The harpy could attack as normal to make two morningstar attacks (one at +8 and one at +3) plus two talon attacks (at +3 each). In this case, her successful attacks would deal the amount of damage listed in her Pathfinder stat block. Alternatively, the harpy could make one morningstar attack (at +8), or two morningstar attacks at +4 each. In this case, each successful attack would deal 1d8+5 damage.

Single Attacks: Monsters in Starfinder are often more accurate than Pathfinder RPG monsters because of how full attacks work in Starfinder; for legacy monsters, the increased accuracy with its first attack in a full attack often makes up for this. If you have a converted monster that is rarely able to make a full attack, you can give it a bonus to its attack rolls when making a single attack, usually +3 or +4.

Critical Hits: A converted monster deals automatic critical damage when it rolls a natural 20 on its attack, with no confirmation roll. However, if a monster’s weapon or attack has an expanded critical range, it must roll to confirm the critical on any result that is in that range but isn’t a 20. For example, if a marilith rolled a 20 on her longsword attack (2d6+8/17–20), she would automatically score a critical hit and deal double damage. If she rolled a 17, 18, or 19, she must hit with a confirmation roll to deal critical damage. Critical multipliers (such as a weapon that deals ×3 damage on a critical hit) still multiply damage by the indicated amount.

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Attacks